There are vehicles that have a rear heater apparatus, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-129732, in which a diffusion outlet is provided to a sliding door formed on a central part of a side panel in the vehicle body, and hot air is blown out into a vehicle interior via the diffusion outlet.
The rear heater apparatus has a heater unit provided to the side panel, a vehicle body-side duct that is connected to the heater unit and has a vehicle body-side connecting opening positioned at a rear edge part of a door opening of the side panel, a sliding-door-side duct that is disposed on an inside surface of the sliding door and has a door-side connecting opening disposed so as to face the vehicle body-side connecting opening, and a connecting duct for connecting the two connecting openings based on the movement of the sliding door between the door-side connecting opening and the vehicle body-side connecting opening.
In the rear heater apparatus, when the sliding door is closed, the door-side connecting opening and vehicle body-side connecting opening are connected via the connecting duct. Hot air blown out from the heater unit is directed to the door connecting opening via the vehicle body-side duct and blown out into the vehicle interior from the diffusion outlet via the sliding-door-side duct.
However, in the rear heater apparatus, the duct is provided to the inside surface of the sliding door and therefore adversely affects the appearance of the vehicle interior.
In order to resolve this problem, a configuration is considered in which the duct is accommodated inside the sliding door. However, the duct is formed to direct the hot air, and therefore assumes a relatively large external profile.
On the other hand, the sliding door is relatively thin. For this reason, when the duct is accommodated within the sliding door, the location where the duct is to be accommodated is restricted. When the location where the duct is to be accommodated is restricted, the hot air will not readily be blown against the entire door glass and, for example, the location against which the hot air is blown must be limited to a position where the field of view of a side mirror is not hindered.
In addition, there are vehicles that have a thermostat, such as is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Post-Exam Publication No. 06-29066, in which a hardboard is mounted in a side door, a heat-generating sheet is provided to the hardboard in a substantially vertical state, a heat-generating layer is provided to the heat-generating sheet, the heat-generating layer is connected to a power source via a harness on the vehicle body-side, and the heat-generating layer is kept at a suitable temperature.
In this vehicle, the heat-generating layer is promptly heated when the engine first starts to operate and other such times, the resulting heat radiates into the vehicle interior, and the vehicle occupant is made comfortable. In addition, the heat-generating sheet is installed within the side door, thereby allowing the side door to maintain an attractive outer appearance.
In the vehicle, a hardboard is necessary in order to support the heat-generating sheet in a substantially vertical state. The hardboard must support the entire body of the heat-generating sheet, and a relatively large board is used. In order to mount the hardboard in the side door, a relatively large space must be maintained within the side door. For this reason, a space in which to mount the hardboard is difficult to maintain in the side door, and considerable scope for improvement remains in this regard.